The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 5A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 5A

Freshman forward Mitch McGary had a breakout game in the third round of the NCAA Tournament against Virginia Commonwealth, but he remains a team-first player.

COURTESY OF MCGARY FAMII
McGary has an odd set of talents off
the court, like riding a unicycle.

Mitch Mc Gary:
Michigan's'Giver'
by Steven Braid Daily Sports Editor

T he images of Mitch
McGary sliding along
the floor or diving into
the stands are entrenched in
the minds of many who have
watched the Michigan men's bas-
ketball team this year. McGary's
bigbody tangled in the crowd, his
massive arms waving in encour-
agement for the crowd to cheer
louder, his legs flailing every
which way - perhaps more than
anyone else, he embodies hustle.
But that all-out energy and
somewhat out-of-control play
is steeped in something much
deeper: a desire to be the best
teammate possible.
It's plenty clich4 for coaches
to praise their team and to call
attention to how good their play-
ers can be, but McGary is truly a
team player. All those dives and
bumps and bruises and burns are
for the team. McGary realizes
that he's become a fan favorite,
that he can create an atmospher-
ic buzz in Crisler Center with his
antics, but he also realizes, more
than anything, that his frenzied
play has a bigger impact on his
teammates.
"I always like to say, 'Be a giver
and not a drainer,"' he says.
I sn the age of high-profile
recruits being groomed
from their middle-school or
early high-school days, McGary
differs in that he has always had
interests away from the court.
Wayne Brumm, McGary's
AAU coach, said he's heard sto-
ries about the Chesterton, Ind.
native throwing a baseball in the
mid-to-high 80s, and Brumm
once or twice talked McGary out
of playing the sport beyond high
school by asking, "How many
6-(foot)-10 outfielders are there
in the majors?"
His high school football coach
wanted to put his name out on
the recruiting trail after his
freshman season playing at the
junior-varsity level at Chesterton
High School because he just had
a sense that McGary would get
recruited to play football in col-
lege.
McGary is also an avid skate-
boarder. His dad built him ramps
in the driveway behind his house,
a place where he and his friends
could hone their skills. But noth-
ing stands out to his family more
than what he could do on one
wheel, on a unicycle.

"He was so good at what-
ever he did, it was incredible,"
McGary's older brother Ryan
said. "So I bought him a unicycle
for his 12th birthday, and he mas-
tered it in like a week."
When he's at home, McGary
will periodically tell his dad to
toss him footballs while he's rid-
ing around on his unicycle. He's
got so much control on one wheel
that Brumm thinks he should
lead the team out of the tunnel
before each game on the unicycle.
McGary wasn't the only kid
in the community with a unicy-
cle. His friend Spencer had one
too. McGary always wanted his
own paper route, but his parents
wouldn't allow him to pick up the
job because of his many other
responsibilities.
He always liked working as
a team, helping others, so he
offered to help Spencer with his
paper route. Side by side, the two
would deliver newspapers to
doorsteps together, each riding
their own unicycle.
"You should have seen them
wobble down the street togeth-
er," said his father, Tim. "It was
such a funny sight."
To Tom Peller, McGary's
former coach at Ches-
terton High School,
nothing epitomizes McGary's
competitive spirit more than the
big man's last game during his
sophomore year. He recounts the
game in a mix of awe and amaze-
ment.
In a game against Valparaiso
High School in the 4A region-
al quarterfinal, McGary was
injured early in the second quar-
ter. He had stolen a pass, sped
down the court and gone up for a
layup. He made the layup but was
undercut and fell down violently.
He crashed hard on his left wrist
and banged his head. McGary
headed to the bench to remain
there for the rest of the first half.
"I don't really remember much
from the game, but I do remem-
ber a funny story," McGary said.
"Two of my good friends, Juan
and Adam, they were sitting on
the bench next to me, and I kept
asking them if I made the basket,
literally around 15 times. They
kept answering me, but I didn't
really comprehend them until
afterwards."
At halftime, McGary wanted
to go back into the game. It was

a playoff game, and playing while
injured was instinctive to him,
a no-brainer. If he was able to
contribute, then he would play.
The team's trainer made him do
jumping jacks and assessed that
he was healthy enough to go
back into the game. McGary's left
wrist hurt, but that didn't matter.
He got his wrist taped, and he re-
entered the game after halftime,
finishing out the rest of the dou-
ble-overtime contest.
Only later was it figured out
that McGary's injuries were a
little more severe than previously
thought.
"We found out afterwards that
he had a concussion and a broken
wrist," Peller said. "He wound up
playing the rest of the game, and
he played great. That was one of
his better games, he had like 18
points and 12 boards. That was
kind of amazing."
Brewster Academy basket-
ball coach Jason Smith
has had many play-
ers come through his program
during his 13 years at the New
Hampshire prep school. He has
coached five NBA players, and
out of the seven players who
graduated in 2012 to go on to play
Division I basketball, five have
collected Rookie of the Week
honors in their respective con-
ferences.
But, according to Smith, in his
two years coaching him, McGary
was a little bit different than all
the other highly touted players
that passed through. He made
time for everyone, whether it was
students in the hallways, workers
in the dining hall, members of the
maintenance staff, something
Smith considers rare for a bas-
ketball player - and a teenager in
general.
What former Brewster team-
mate and current UCLA guard
Khalid McCaskill remembers
most about McGary was the pride
he took in being the hustle player,
in doing whatever little thing he
could to help the team.
But maybe Smith's favorite
story about McGary is one that
he never witnessed firsthand.
During the 2011 summer, right
before his final year at Brewster
and about the time his stock was
starting to spike, McGary attend-
ed the NBA Top-100 Camp at the
University of Virginia.
It's an accepted standard at

these camps that players are just
trying to improve their stock and
will try to make themselves look
as good as possible on the court.
Smith expected there to be some
buzz about McGary's play, as this
would be an opportunity for him
to showcase his talents for an
audience that included dozens
of college coaches. One day dur-
ing the camp, Smith had gone for
a run, and when he came back
his phone was blowing up. But it
wasn't about what he had expect-
ed.
"I had about 15 text messages
from coaches and they were all
talking about how shocked they
were because they had never
seen anyone with a reputation
like Mitch's be such a great team-
mate at a camp setting," Smith
said. "The text messages were
saying that he was giving his
teammates water during time-
outs, he was the first guy clap-
ping on the bench and that he
cheering his teammates on - and
this was all happening at a com-
petitive camp."
It came as no surprise to
Smith. That selflessness was
something he saw from McGary
on a daily basis, whether it was
during a game or a practice.
"The one thing you can say
about Mitch is that he always has
been, and he always will be, atre-
mendous teammate," Smith said.
"With him, it's not about person-
al accolades. It's all about what he
can do to help the team win. He's
definitely the best teammate of
anyone that we have had."
cGary has a competi-
tive spirit, and there's
no question that he's
wanted to start every game this
season. He came in as a blue-chip
recruit, one of the nation's best
big men, and there was a lot of
pressure on him. Even if he won't
say it, there were expectations
that he wanted to meet.
Early in the season, McGary
accepted the sixth-man role. He
was a difference maker off the
bench, providing energy and
pumping up the crowd with his
hustle.
So when redshirt junior for-
ward Jordan Morgan went down
with a sprained ankle in late
January, McGary had his oppor-
tunity to start. It was something
he had been waiting for all sea-
son, and now all he had to do was

accept the promotion while Mor-
gan was unable to compete on a
bum ankle.
But McGary didn't do what
was expected. On Jan. 29, the
night before the Wolverines
matched up against Northwest-
ern, McGary suggested to Michi-
gan coach John Beilein that he
look elsewhere to fill the void in
the starting lineup that Morgan
left.
"I said to Mitch McGary,
'Mitch, what do you feel about
tomorrow? I don't know what to
do yet, you (and redshirt sopho-
more Jon Horford) both prac-
ticed well,' " Beilein said. "He
said, 'Coach, I've been coming off
the bench for two years, I'm cool
with coming off the bench.' That
really helped us make the deci-
sion. Talk about sacrifice."
For McGary, there's nowor-
rying about his future, no
concern over his stats or
his minutes. He started the sea-
son coming off the bench and
only recently has made his way
into the starting lineup. He pro-
vides what the team needs - no

kicked Gov. Rick Snyder in the
face when diving for a ball in the
stands.
McGary's unselfish style of play
doesn't really stand out until you
realize that he was the second-
highest-rated high-school recruit
in the country when he commit-
ted to Michigan in the fall of 2011.
"I started at the bottom of
the totem pole, and I'm trying to
make my way up," McGary said.
"I never wanted to diss anybody,
I've always wanted to be a giver.
I keep saying that because it's
important in life to give to peo-
ple."
And as the season winds down
and the Wolverines make a push
in the postseason, McGary is giv-
ing more than ever. He's averag-
ing 17 points and 11.5 rebounds
in the NCAA Tournament so far
and tallied career highs in points,
rebounds and minutes in Michi-
gan's third-round victory against
Virginia Commonwealth.
But for McGary, he's trying
to save his best for last, working
hard to accomplish what he set
outto do when he signedhisletter
of intent to play college basketball
in Ann Arbor: give Michigan a